TriCons Notes: Actant Morphology
2005-Dec-05, Monday 16:56![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
qiihoskehI'll continue to edit this post. It covers case suffixes, personal affixes, and additional voices.
(A2-(A3-))Stem-A1
A2 and A3 are personal prefixes; A1 is either a personal suffix, a case suffix, or null. The roles (and corresponding argument cases) for the actants depend on the word's argument structure class. These come out as:
Ditransitive:
* Don-Obj-DirectStem-Rcp
* Rcp-Obj-InverseStem-Don
* Don-Rcp-2ndInverseStem-Obj
Transitive:
* Agt/Ins-DirectStem-Pat or
* Obj-DirectStem-Sub/Agt or
* Obj-DirectStem-Sub
* Pat-InverseStem-Agt/Ins or
* Sub/Agt-InverseStem-Obj or
* Sub-InverseStem-Obj
Intransitive:
* DirectStem-Sub/Agt
-Abs /u:/ absolutive
-Erg /A:/ ergative
-Ins /a/ instrumental
-Obj /i:/ objective (3rd argument if trivalent verb, may be 2nd argument of divalent verb)
-Gen /e:/ genitive (2nd argument of noun or adjective)
-Voc /o:/ vocative
The 1st argument of all verbs is absolutive, except that some verbs allow an ergative argument instead. Any 2nd argument of those verbs that allow this is objective and of those that don't it's ergative, for which an instrumental can be used instead. The 3rd argument of a trivalent verb is always objective.
The auxiliary marker (?) replaces that corresponding to the objective case argument.
Note that these phoneme assignments may change.
1X /m/ 1st person eXclusive (proximal); no proximal plural
2X /t/ 2nd person eXclusive (proximal)
2N /s/ 2nd person iNclusive (proximal)
3AL /k/ 3rd person Animate Proximal
3AD /y/ 3rd person Animate Distal
3IL /l/ 3rd person Inanimate Proximal; number isn't distinguished
3ID /j/ 3rd person Inanimate Distal; number isn't distinguished
Uns /n/ Unspecified argument: no distinctions, no phrase can appear
Exp /q/ * Explicit argument: no distinctions except in phrase, which must appear
Rel /w/ Relative Clause coreference
* The affixes for Exp are null except for the A2 and A3 actants of the 2nd participle of ditransitives and possibly the A1 actant of subjunctives.
S Singular
P simple Plural
A + associated distal
Example: 2X.S- 2nd person eXclusive Singular, used as prefix.
Rfx /r/ Reflexive
AnP / / Antipassive voice
CC / / Object of action word is complement clause.
The antipassive prefix deletes the original 1st argument and makes the original 2nd argument the 1st argument. The passive voice is implemented using the Uns- prefix.
Position of Actants
The order of the actants is:(A2-(A3-))Stem-A1
A2 and A3 are personal prefixes; A1 is either a personal suffix, a case suffix, or null. The roles (and corresponding argument cases) for the actants depend on the word's argument structure class. These come out as:
Ditransitive:
* Don-Obj-DirectStem-Rcp
* Rcp-Obj-InverseStem-Don
* Don-Rcp-2ndInverseStem-Obj
Transitive:
* Agt/Ins-DirectStem-Pat or
* Obj-DirectStem-Sub/Agt or
* Obj-DirectStem-Sub
* Pat-InverseStem-Agt/Ins or
* Sub/Agt-InverseStem-Obj or
* Sub-InverseStem-Obj
Intransitive:
* DirectStem-Sub/Agt
Affixes and Corresponding Interlinear Tags
Case Suffixes
The tags and morphemes are:-Abs /u:/ absolutive
-Erg /A:/ ergative
-Ins /a/ instrumental
-Obj /i:/ objective (3rd argument if trivalent verb, may be 2nd argument of divalent verb)
-Gen /e:/ genitive (2nd argument of noun or adjective)
-Voc /o:/ vocative
The 1st argument of all verbs is absolutive, except that some verbs allow an ergative argument instead. Any 2nd argument of those verbs that allow this is objective and of those that don't it's ergative, for which an instrumental can be used instead. The 3rd argument of a trivalent verb is always objective.
The auxiliary marker (?) replaces that corresponding to the objective case argument.
Personal Affixes
Location is either proximal, distal, or proximal + associated distal entities. Number isn't distinguished for the last of these, which is marked by /i/. Singular is /u/, plural is /a/, and neutral is /e/. Exception 1: 1st person (exclusive) (proximal) singular is /ma/. Exception 2: relative pronoun coreference singular is /we/. 3IL, 3ID, Uns, and Exp have only neutral forms; the others have no neutral forms.Note that these phoneme assignments may change.
1X /m/ 1st person eXclusive (proximal); no proximal plural
2X /t/ 2nd person eXclusive (proximal)
2N /s/ 2nd person iNclusive (proximal)
3AL /k/ 3rd person Animate Proximal
3AD /y/ 3rd person Animate Distal
3IL /l/ 3rd person Inanimate Proximal; number isn't distinguished
3ID /j/ 3rd person Inanimate Distal; number isn't distinguished
Uns /n/ Unspecified argument: no distinctions, no phrase can appear
Exp /q/ * Explicit argument: no distinctions except in phrase, which must appear
Rel /w/ Relative Clause coreference
* The affixes for Exp are null except for the A2 and A3 actants of the 2nd participle of ditransitives and possibly the A1 actant of subjunctives.
Number
Plural nouns either add a plural marker or replace the derivational marker. Adjectives don't distinguish singular and plural. The following tags are added to the personal tags:S Singular
P simple Plural
A + associated distal
Example: 2X.S- 2nd person eXclusive Singular, used as prefix.
Limitations
The agent of an imperative mood word is limited to the 2nd person (this rule is why the iNclusive person is given as 2nd person rather than 1st person).Voice Prefixes
These replace the A2 personal prefix and reduce the valence. Number is neutral for these.Rfx /r/ Reflexive
AnP / / Antipassive voice
CC / / Object of action word is complement clause.
The antipassive prefix deletes the original 1st argument and makes the original 2nd argument the 1st argument. The passive voice is implemented using the Uns- prefix.
